Various content creation applications are used to create web pages, rich Internet applications (RIA), and other types of electronic content. Such electronic content can, in some instances, only be played on computing devices that have downloaded a shared library that provides features or functionality used by the content. For example, a piece of electronic content may use a graphic component that can only be displayed when played on a web browser or RIA using code provided in such a shared library. Moreover, a shared library generally needs to be downloaded prior to launching a piece of electronic content because it is generally impossible to determine whether the shared library will be required for the first state, frame, or scene of the electronic content.
In circumstances in which electronic content requires downloading a shared library, content creators have typically been required to write custom code to accomplish such downloading. Certain content creation applications have provided some rudimentary facilities to help content creators in this regard. In some content creation environments, a tag or other feature can be used to block everything else from happening in a piece of electronic content while something is downloading. Such features, however, block everything and thus restrict or even prevent a content creator from specifying a loading animation or other initial content to be played during the download.
The problems associated with facilitating a content creator's ability to use features that require downloading a shared library are particularly significant for content creation applications that give a content creator significant flexibility with respect to the timeline/frames of the electronic content. In such applications, it may be desirable to make all frames of the timeline available for content creator use, meaning that the content creation application cannot reserve any frames for downloading the shared library. Generally, existing content creation applications do not adequately allow flexible content creation in which users have significant control over timeline or other features while being able to use features from a shared library. Existing content creation applications also do not adequately allow content creators to configure asynchronous shared library downloading with minimal or no coding and/or to use a loading animation or other loading content that plays while a shared library is downloaded.